Local chef recounts 3-hour dinner, chat with icon in 2000

HUNTSVILLE - For Anthony Gutierrez, it was the creme de la creme for a chef.

In 2000, the now-executive chef at The Scene Restaurant inside Monaco Pictures at Bridge Street Town Centre got the rare opportunity to dine with the legendary Julia Child during a private dinner for the American Food and Wine Society in Berkeley, Calif.

Child passed away in 2004, but her story is the basis for the current movie "Julie & Julia."

"It was $1,000 a plate, and eight of us sat at her table," Gutierrez said of his dinner with Child. "We got to chat with Julia for three hours and drink wine with her.

"We had lively chatter about each course, and she was very interested in the food and wine. She was eating and drinking with both hands. I can't even remember what we had."

Child introduced French cuisine and cooking to Americans through her TV show "The French Chef," which premiered in 1963, and her cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

Gutierrez learned a few things from her, too.

"Just be enthusiastic and open," he said. "And, don't be afraid to fail.

"As a culinarian - I really wouldn't characterize her as a true chef - she's one of the top five people who have progressed cooking in the last 50 years.

"She was one of the first to write recipes as a business. She set the template for the Martha Stewarts and other celebrity chefs, from a culinary standpoint. She revolutionized the art of recipes. She was iconic and had a huge impact on my life."

Gutierrez enjoyed chatting about Child now that she's back in the news, thanks to the movie based on a true story. He and Chef Shawn Rizzie of The Westin did a cooking demonstration Aug. 8 at Bridge Street's Farmers Market using some of Child's recipes.

"I saw the movie and loved it," Gutierrez said. "I thought the acting was spot-on. It also showed a little of San Francisco, and that was very realistic."

Gutierrez knows a little something about San Francisco. He grew up in the middle of orchards and farms in the Santa Clara Valley and started cooking with his grandmother when he was 11 or 12. As he grew older, Gutierrez learned the art of cuisine in such prestigious Bay-area restaurants as Frankie, Johnnie and Luigi Too, Sofitel Accor, La Folie, Taste Catering, the Blue Mermaid Seafood and Chowder House, and The Bohemian Grove.

So how did he get from a chef spawning ground like California to Huntsville?

"The food director of Monaco Pictures called and said he was working on a prototype and wanted to start up a restaurant in Huntsville," said Gutierrez, who married a local gal, Lezley Simmons, this past Valentine's Day. "I like to start up places and came over. In fact, we want to open more restaurants."

Of course, nobody would ever confuse Northern California with Huntsville, right? Well ...

"Actually, Huntsville is a lot like Northern California in the fact there's a renaissance in using local ingredients," Gutierrez said. "There's a lot of good chefs coming here that ante up the game, guys like Shawn at the Westin, the guys at Cotton Row and Pane e Vino (James Boyce and Charles Meola), the guy at 801 Franklin (Joseph Kindred).

"There's a lot of talent here at casual, upscale restaurants who use French techniques."
Gutierrez has several ideas cooking. Stay tuned.